


Discipline

by mydeira



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2013-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 15:45:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What could have gone on in the Principal's Office during "School Hard".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discipline

**Author's Note:**

> I walked right into this one by challenging Savvy with what I did. Though the idea for Joyce/Snyder was born a long time ago with the Albatross Project. Please forgive me, Joyce. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.
> 
> (I think the Menageaverse amply made things up to Joyce.)

Snyder’s façade of power was thin at best.  It took very little to unsettle him or make him squirm.  So his rule when dealing with parents of especially his more troublesome students was not to let them get in more than a word or two.  And hopefully turn them on the defensive.

 

He should have known from his encounters with Buffy Summers that taking on her mother one on one was not one of his smarter moves. Too late to change that now.

 

He plunged ahead anyway.  “Mrs. Summers, when dealing with troubled children as often as I have, you learn quickly which ones can be helped and which are beyond all help.  And I regret to inform you that your daughter’s delinquency has progressed to such an extent that drastic measures are needed if you hope for her to have any kind of future.  Not just here in Sunnydale High, but also in the world.”

 

As usual, he paused here to let the parent or parents protest briefly.  But Joyce Summers did nothing of the sort.  She sat in the chair across from him, unreadable and silent.  So, he continued.

 

“Frequent absences are the least of your worries.  Buffy has shown a complete disregard for the rules all together and has, on a number of occasions I’m afraid, caused extensive damage to school property for no explainable reasons.  If her behavior does not change in the foreseeable future, I don’t see her being able to remain a student here.”

 

Finished, he waited for a response from the mother of his most troublesome student.  And waited.  And waited.  There was usually bluster, a few angry words.  But nothing.  The woman sat there, calm and silent.  He couldn’t believe it.  Maybe he had finally won over someone to his way of thinking.  The glee started to bubble up.  Victory over Buffy Summers.  Finally, he met a parent who saw the truth.

 

Too late did Snyder realize how gravely he’d misjudged.

 

“I’m glad we see eye to eye on this, Mrs. Summers,” he stood, officially putting a close to the meeting.  “It will make future dealings much easier.”

 

“Please, call me Joyce,” she said, her voice cool and smooth, remaining seated.  “You strike me as a very lonely man, Principal Snyder.”

 

He blinked in surprise.

 

“Stuck in a dead-end job that you never wanted but have no hope of escaping from.  Dealing with students who treat you with little more respect than you had when you were a student,” she shook her head.  Then rising to her feet, she walked around the desk to face him.  To tower over him.  She had to have at least six inches on him, and she wasn’t even wearing heels, he noticed. “I can understand loneliness, but is this the only enjoyment you get out of life?”

 

Snyder did his best to remain confident and in control of the situation.  But this giant of a woman was quickly undermining that with her sudden directness after sitting silently through his speech.

 

“I think this conference is over,” he managed to keep his voice calm.

 

“Is it?  But I haven’t had my turn to speak,” she countered, a note of seduction in her tone.  “Do you even care about the students?  Or give them a chance to prove your instant judgments wrong?”

 

“Mrs. Summers, I—”

 

“I told you, call me Joyce,” she said firmly.

 

“J-Joyce, I-I…” he faltered.  Snyder was out of his element.  The mothers were supposed to rage or cry or both, not do what this woman was doing.  He felt like an animal caught by a predator who was just biding her time, playing with him until she struck.  And she did strike.

 

He barely registered her arm moving at all before he felt a slender hand caress along his face, coming to rest cupping against his right cheek.  She leaned down so her face was level, lips almost touching his.

 

“You poor man, just who do you think is in charge here?” she whispered.

 

An instant later she had turned on her heels and was walking out the door, leaving him humiliated, deprived of his only joy in life—gloating superiorly over clueless parents— and hornier than he had been in years. 


End file.
